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The content of each post is solely written by that contributor and only expresses the contributor's personal views. Each post does not represent the views of all the contributors or Women of Color Living Abroad as an organization. Each contributor is speaking from their own person experiences and/or perspective.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

What's Your Footprint?

By: Brittany S

Not all prints wash away as easily as these.

Just as you get country stamps in your
passport, the country will inherit your footprint. I don’t mean this literally, although you
will do your share of walking. What
impression will you leave behind?
Although you are on vacation, you are visiting someone’s home and your
choices will often impact their (and your) beliefs and actions. So here are a couple of things to consider increasing
the chances of your vacation being pleasant for both you and the locals.

Respect
the Culture: Three
American Girls Head to France

Girl A
studied French before the visit and was able to have basic conversations and
read signs in French to help her get around.
She was able to take the metro and when she was lost or needed to find
the restroom, communicate her thoughts in French. If the locals knew English, they pleasantly
responded to her in English. If not,
they were patient with her French. She
found the French to be very friendly throughout Paris and hopes to return one
day.

Girls B & C
didn’t study French and were advised by Girl A to at least learn how to say
“Hello” “Thank you.” “English?” and “Sorry.” if nothing else. She offered to write these phrases and the
translation for them but they declined and said they’ll be fine. When they went to the metro, the attendant
only spoke French and they couldn’t read the machine to buy their own ticket
(even though there was a button to change it to English, they didn’t know the
French word for it). Annoyed, they
walked out and headed to something American: McDonalds. When they tried to order, the young girl
didn’t understand them and they became very impatient. Completely irritated, the girls grabbed their
food and flagged down a taxi. They
instructed the driver to take them to their hotel (in English) and the driver
deliberately overcharged them. When they
refused to pay they started yelling at him (in English) and he slapped one in
the face and pulled the other’s hair.
Defeated, they paid, hopped out in tears, and vowed never to return to
France again. After all, they heard the
French were rude anyway.

I had a BLAST! Can't wait to return...

Extreme?
Well, this actually happened. I’m
Girl A. I studied French in school, but
didn’t know much. What I did know was
French culture. I knew a lot of French
people are really annoyed with foreigners, especially Americans,
expecting everyone to speak English.
Sometimes they refuse to speak English to you if they know it, and other
times they are rude in return like this taxi driver. The two girls refused my help and spoke 100%
English the entire time. Each encounter
they had made the French person(s) uncomfortable to say the least. So now those people they met may have a
resonating belief that Americans are arrogant and rude and the two girls feel
the same about them. In reality, not
everyone is like that, but those people will tell others of their encounters
and the negative feelings toward the other group will spread and solidify.

Respect
the People: Two Black Girls Go to Korea

A group goes to Korea to teach English
as a second language for a month.
Koreans’ views on Black people range from them wanting us to leave their
country all the way up to wanting to copy our style of art, music, and fashion. Somewhere in the middle lies a fear and/or
curiosity of the unknown (in this case, the Black person). Both girls received a brief orientation of
Korean history, culture, and customs, particularly how it pertains to
foreigners.

Girl A
decided she shouldn’t have to change who she is just because she’s in Korea. Why should she have to bend to the will of
the group? Whenever an older Korean
woman kindly asked her to be quiet on the bus (as most Koreans travel in
silence), she rolled her eyes at the woman and continued talking, remarking
that the woman only told her to be quiet because she is Black. Whenever she would catch children staring at
her, she would shoot them a mean look and they would quickly turn around and
hide their faces. About a week later,
she contracted H1N1 (“swine flu”) and was quarantined.

When you're open, random (cool) stuff happens to you.

Girl B embraced the “when in Rome” mentality but acknowledged that even Rome
fell. She'd do things the Korean way, as long as it didn’t change who she was at the very
core. She understood children weren’t
trying to be insulting when they called her a man (because of her
short hair) or asked if she was dirty (they'd never seen someone so dark
before so they thought it was unnatural).
She had fun sharing naïve moments with adults and happy that she could
serve as a teacher for the curious youth.
Even though one of her roommates (and some of her friends) contracted
H1N1, she didn't. She returned to Korea
years later to teach full-time.

Ok, so I know this story was a bit over
the top, and no, I am not suggesting that if you are rude to elderly people on
buses you will contract H1N1, I just wanted to make the story dramatic,
but again, this is a true story. I’m
Girl B and I came to Korea to work for a summer camp with 69 other
teachers. We knew very little about
Korean culture so they briefed us. Some
were unhappy with what we learned and deemed some things unacceptable (and as
something they will completely disregard).
Others felt things may not have been ideal, but at least tried to
discern why things are that way in order to best combat them. As with any people, if you are not exposed to
others, you will only know what you encounter in media. Particularly in rural Korea, there are many
people who have never left their province.
As far as foreigners are concerned, most don’t exactly fly 15+ hours to
visit a Korean rice field, so these Koreans never see them. During our orientation, we experienced an
H1N1 outbreak and a lot of teachers contracted it.

Bottom
Line:When you
travel, please remember that YOU made the choice to visit that place. No one is twisting your arm saying “Come to
my country and force your country’s ways on it.” History has shown us how that has go horribly
wrong time and time again. However, just
because you visit another place doesn’t mean you should not be yourself. You can still be yourself and be respectful
of others. If you feel too strongly
about the host country’s requests of its visitors, please choose another
country. You’ll enjoy yourself so much
more if you are somewhere you feel unrestricted.

When we go to different countries, we
are a representation of our country, race, gender, and/or culture to everyone
from the little girl on the bus to the government. It works both ways. What you see and who you meet will greatly
shape your opinion of the place and its people.
These opinions that you will form of each other will shape future
interactions. So if you insist on going
to a particular country, you may have to compromise a little on some
things. It’s usually nothing major, just
something different. After all, how
horrible is it to be silent in a silent bus?
Tread softly. :-)

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About Me

This blog is part of Expat Women of Color website (www.expatwomenofcolor.com). It was designed to educate and provide resources for women of color who desire or are currently living abroad. This blog was created to help promote information about how to travel in different countries, inexpensive ways to travel, lessons learned while traveling, and resources that can help other women who desire to take the leap and move abroad in the future. Welcome ABROAD!